Yesterday, DRS Technologies announced it would relocate its corporate headquarters from New Jersey to Arlington County, Va. The company will expand its Virginia presence to more than 100 employees, bringing a capital investment in excess of $10 million to the region.

The defense technology leader is a subsidiary of Italian conglomerate Finmeccanica S.p.A., a top ten global defense and aerospace leader. DRS Technologies develops a wide range of mission-critical systems for homeland security and military needs.

The Governor met with company officials at the Farnborough International Air Show in summer 2010.

Virginia was chosen for the company’s new headquarters location due to its proximity to key customers in the D.C. area, as well as the company’s positive experience with Virginia’s pro-business regulatory environment and tech-savvy workforce. Virginia has the highest concentration of high-tech workers according to Cyberstates 2011.

To learn why major defense companies such as DRS Technologies, Northrop Grumman, ITT Exelis and ATK have all recently selected the Commonwealth for their headquarters location, click here.

L-3 Communications spin-off Engility Corp. announced yesterday that it would establish its new corporate headquarters in Fairfax County, Va. The project, a positive result of the Governor’s recent marketing mission to New York and Canada, will bring 50 new jobs and a $6.5 million investment to Northern Virginia.

With more than $2 billion in sales and 9,200 employees worldwide, Engility Corp. is a leading professional services firm providing systems engineering and technical assistance support services to numerous government agencies, including the Department of Defense. Virginia’s proximity to the company’s key markets and customers was a deciding factor for this headquarters location.

L-3 Communications’ existing presence in the Commonwealth and positive experience with Virginia’s highly-skilled workforce and pro-business tax structure led Engility to choose Virginia over its competition in Maryland.

As part of the professional services industry, Engility’s new headquarters location builds upon the success Virginia has shown in the sector. Professional services was the Commonwealth’s top sector for job creation in 2011, announcing 12,769 new jobs. With human capital as the major input, the sector’s 108 percent growth over the last year illustrates the driving force of Virginia’s world-class workforce.

To learn more why companies continue to select the Commonwealth for their headquarters locations, click here.

New industry study Broadband at the Speed of Light details how three communities, including Bristol, Va., took matters into their own hands to develop some of the top broadband networks in the country.

Published by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) and the Benton Foundation, the study details a growing trend — rather than relying on the slower pace of private sector telecommunications expansion, community leaders are successfully designing and implementing their own public broadband networks.

Bristol is touted as one of the first municipalities in the nation to build a citywide Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) network that offers telephone, cable television and Internet broadband access. The local power utility, Bristol Virginia Utilities, launched its fiber optic network in 2003 under the name OptiNet.

Study author Christopher Mitchell noted that Bristol’s residents have “faster and lower cost access to the Internet than anyone in San Francisco, Seattle or any other major city.”

With a take rate above 70 percent, OptiNet has since expanded outside of Bristol to nearby businesses and industrial parks, helping to create hundreds of jobs for Virginians. Named the 2009 Community Broadband Fiber Network of the Year by the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisers, the network has also been praised in The Economist and in the FCC’s National Broadband Plan for America.

OptiNet is not the only technology investment Southern Virginia has seen. Several years ago the Mid-Atlantic Broadband Cooperative established an 800 mile open-access, fiber-optic broadband network, attracting Gigaparks and technology companies to the former tobacco region.

High-speed broadband infrastructure has become an increasingly important component to business expansion decisions, allowing Virginia to remain competitive on a global level. The expansions of companies such as Microsoft, Northrop Grumman, CGI and Alpha Natural Resources in the region are due in part to the availability of a high-speed network.

To learn more about Virginia’s strength as a technology leader and why companies continue to locate in the Top State for Business, click here.

Earlier this week, Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling joined McKesson officials to celebrate the grand opening of the company’s new medical distribution center in Caroline County. Initially announced in August 2010, the new, state-of-the-art distribution center will allow McKesson to better serve its domestic and international customers, bringing 150 new jobs and a $50 million investment to Virginia.

Ranked 15th on the Fortune 500, McKesson is the largest pharmaceutical wholesaler in North America, distributing one-third of all medicines used each day. McKesson’s selection of Virginia over Maryland and Pennsylvania confirms the Commonwealth’s strong advantages for companies vested in global logistics.

The new distribution center will enhance McKesson’s total supply chain efficiency as well as extend the company’s footprint in Virginia. Building off the McKesson Medical Surgical corporate office in Richmond, this new distribution center will bring the company’s employee base in Virginia to more than 600.

Virginia offers several advantages for distribution centers, including easy rail access, six major highways, one of the largest container ports on the East Coast, and the third largest state-maintained transportation network in the country.

To learn more about why the nation’s leading distributors are locating in Virginia, click here.

In its fifth edition of Rich States, Poor States the American Legislative Exchange Council rated Virginia in the top three for its 2012 Economic Outlook Ranking. This forward-looking ranking comprises 15 equally weighted state policy variables, including personal and corporate tax rates, as well as worker’s compensation costs, right-to-work status and even the quality of the state legislature.

As the highest ranked state in the region, Virginia definitively outshined its competition. With a corporate tax rate of six percent that remains unchanged since 1972, a right-to-work regulatory environment, and an unemployment tax burden that is 32 percent lower than the national average, it is easy to see why this is the second consecutive year the Commonwealth has made the top three in this study.

Virginia’s pro-growth economic policies offer companies long-term incentives to invest in the Commonwealth. For example, Virginia was able to successfully compete against nearby Maryland on a number of recent headquarters relocation announcements, including Northrop Grumman, ITT Exelis, Bechtel Corp. (divisional headquarters), Acentia and Alpha Natural Resources.

To learn why Virginia is consistently ranked America’s Top State for Business click here.

Virginia professors represented more than 10% of The Princeton Review's inaugural Best 300 Professors list. Teaming up with RateMyProfessors.com, the organizations reviewed data on more than 42,000 professors to create their first ranking of America’s top undergraduate professors.

The Best 300 Professors list includes professors from five Virginia schools: University of Mary Washington, James Madison University, Sweet Briar College, University of Richmond and the College of William & Mary. A broad range of departments was represented, including computer science, mathematics, economics, chemistry, biology, accounting, political science, english and psychology, among others.

The ranking was based on survey data from college students, using both quantitative and qualitative statistics to evaluate factors such as the student’s overall experience in the classroom, the professor’s teaching ability and the professor’s accessibility.

Virginia’s strong performance on The Best 300 Professors list is yet another validation of the Commonwealth’s excellent higher education system. Virginia’s colleges and universities have achieved national recognition on a number of the prestigious U.S. News and World Report college rankings.

Last year, Virginia’s colleges and universities awarded 133,603 degrees ranging from associate through doctorate levels. With more than 500,000 students currently enrolled in more than 100 in-state institutions, Virginia’s strong pipeline of skilled workers is ready to meet the needs of businesses expanding across the Commonwealth.

To learn more about Virginia’s outstanding education system and workforce training programs, click here.

What makes this ranking unique is that it reflects the perception of the local workforce regarding job creation in their city. Gallup performed a survey over calendar year 2011, interviewing employees in each metro area about whether their employers were expanding or downsizing.

Thirty-six percent of Richmond’s workforce stated that their employer was expanding while only 14 percent said their company was decreasing its workforce, yielding a net job creation index score of 22.

Coming shortly after Virginia was named the 2012 Best State to Make a Living by MoneyRates.com, Gallup’s Job Creation ranking illustrates the high quality of life and career opportunities employees find in Virginia, as well as why the Commonwealth is able to attract a world-class workforce. New and established companies alike continually praise the skill and productivity of Virginia’s workforce.

To learn more about Virginia’s stellar employee base and why the Commonwealth is continually ranked America’s Top State for Business, click here.

Businesses and residents in Southwestern Virginia will soon enjoy faster, more consistent wireless network access. Over the next three years, The Virginia Coalfield Coalition will partner with Verizon Wireless to install the network that will reach 95,000 households and 2,600 businesses in seven counties.

The Virginia Tobacco Commission committed $7.5 million in grants to implement the Fourth Generation Long Term Evolution (4G LTE) wireless network. The 4G LTE network is the most advanced technology currently available and is up to 10 times faster than 3G service, according to Verizon. The project will be completed in three phases, upgrading many existing towers and building at least 11 new towers in 2013-2014. Officials expect the first towers to be operational as soon as October 2012.

This investment will improve cellular phone service and also bring high-speed internet access to new areas, making Southwestern Virginia an even more appealing location for all businesses, particularly the high-tech industry. Global leaders such as Northrop Grumman, CGI and AT&T have all chosen to locate operations in the region. Southwestern Virginia also offers tech businesses access to high-speed broadband networks, a skilled workforce with tech-tailored training programs and low operational costs.

These easily accessible resources mirror a statewide trend, making Virginia an even more attractive place to do business. With the highest concentration of high-tech workers according to Cyberstates 2011, the Commonwealth has the workforce to support its expanding tech industry.

To learn why leading technology companies have invested more than $9 billion over the last ten years to grow their operations in Virginia, click here.

MeadWestvaco Corporation (MWV) recently opened its state-of-the-art pilot plant in Henrico County, Va., last week. The plant is part of MWV’s Center for Packaging Innovation, which the company moved to its corporate headquarters in Richmond, Va., from Raleigh, N.C. in 2010.

MWV’s Center for Packaging Innovation develops and tests new products and technologies as part of the company’s effort to find creative packaging solutions for customers across the globe. The 48,000-square-foot plant will allow the company to increase its pre-commercialization product testing.

With five new labs MWV’s capabilities include wood fiber development, polymer compounding, metallurgy and corrosion analysis, coatings and materials testing, form/fill/seal machines, die-cutting, distribution and supply chain testing, equipment prototyping, injection molding and multi-layer extrusion and lamination, to name just a few.

The pilot plant is the latest in a series of investments this Fortune 500 company has made in the Commonwealth. MWV invested $80 million to move its corporate headquarters from Connecticut to Richmond, Va., in 2006, creating 400 new jobs. The company also announced an investment of $285 million in June 2011 to construct a new, state-of-the-art biomass boiler at its Covington Mill in Alleghany County, Va. MWV has been a Covington employer since 1899.

These investments illustrate MWV’s confidence in Virginia’s talent and infrastructure to support innovative projects across the Commonwealth. According to MWV Chairman and CEO John A. Luke, Jr., “Virginia is not only our corporate home; it is a major base of operations and gateway for our business around the world.”

To learn why companies continue to invest in the Commonwealth and locate their headquarters in Virginia’s pro-business environment, click here.

Site Selection Magazine awarded Virginia a Top 5 ranking with its annual Governor’s Cup for new and expanded facilities. Virginia’s 273 new projects and expansions showed an increase of 44 percent over 2010, allowing the Commonwealth to climb from 10th place last year to 5th place this year.

To be included in the rankings, new facilities and expansions had to meet at least one of the following criteria: a minimum investment of $1 million, creation of at least 50 jobs and the addition of at least 20,000 square feet of new floor space.

Northern Virginia’s Arlington/Alexandria area received a No. 8 ranking for Top Metros with populations over one million. For metro areas with a population less than 200,000 three Virginia regions made the top 10 list. The Blacksburg/Christiansburg/Radford region was rated No. 4 and Charlottesville and Danville were both rated No. 8.

Staunton/Waynesboro, Va., received a 13th place ranking in the Top Micropolitan category. Micropolitans are defined as rural areas with a population of less than 50,000.

Staunton has been in the press recently when Forbes.com picked up the publication “How to Radically Revitalize America: A Micropolitan Manifesto.” Written and photographed by Staunton business owners, the publication describes how entrepreneurs are choosing to locate their businesses in Staunton, Va., for the rich quality of life the area offers.

Virginia’s pro-business operating environment, highly skilled workforce, leading R&D centers, premier logistics network and strong quality of life are just some of the reasons Virginia continues to lead with top accolades from CNBC, Forbes.com, Pollina Corporate Real Estate and Site Selection Magazine.

To learn why Virginia is the best state for business and offers the right mix of resources to support your business, click here.

Volvo Trucks’ New River Valley plant in Dublin, Va., is the first U.S. facility certified to the ISO 50001 standards and the first Superior Energy Performance (SEP)-certified facility to use the ISO 50001 as its energy management standard.

The New River Valley plant achieved both certifications by participating in pilot programs supported by the U.S. Department of Defense and offered through the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the ASQ National Accreditation Board (ANAB). The Virginia plant was SEP certified at the highest level, platinum, due to its 15 percent improvement in energy performance over a three-year period.

These energy efficiency certifications not only take the Virginia plant closer to becoming carbon neutral, they also allow the company to be more competitive at a global level.

Company management credits its skilled Virginia workforce for coming up with many of the energy-saving ideas. “These certifications required a high degree of cooperation — a total plant effort. Employees at all levels have been actively engaged throughout our entire energy reduction journey,” said Lars Blomberg, Volvo Trucks vice president.

The 1.6 million-square-foot plant at New River Valley is a marquee establishment in Southwestern Virginia, employing more than 2,000 Virginians. The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with New River Economic Development Alliance and Pulaski County in 1999 on the company’s $148 million expansion of the plant, which created 1,277 new jobs.

Virginia is home to 170 automotive companies and Volvo Trucks’ New River Valley plant is a prime example of the innovation Virginia companies are bringing to the industry. With a pro-business operating environment, skilled workforce and R&D partnerships with universities, such as the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute and the National Tire Research Center, the Commonwealth has the infrastructure to support the future growth of this industry.

To learn more about what Virginia can offer automotive companies click here.

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About VEDP

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP), a state authority created by the Virginia General Assembly to better serve those seeking a prime business location and increased trade opportunities, provides confidential site selection and international trade services. VEDP's mission: To enhance the quality of life and raise the standard of living for all Virginians, in collaboration with Virginia communities, through aggressive business recruitment, expansion assistance, and trade development, thereby expanding the tax base and creating higher-income employment opportunities.